Sherando Takes Pride In Annoying Its Opponents
Posted: September 21, 2015
By ROBERT NIEDZWIECKI
The Winchester Star
Dennis GrundmanSpecial to The Winchester StarAnnouncer Rick Ours describes a play from the press box at Sherando High School during Friday’s Homecoming game.
Dennis GrundmanSpecial to The Winchester StarThe Sherando football team charges onto the field Friday at Homecoming. Sherando defeated Eastern View, 42-21.
STEPHENS CITY — There’s a scene in the 1994 movie “Dumb and Dumber” in which the character Lloyd Christmas, played by Jim Carrey, asks a fellow passenger in a van, “Wanna hear the most annoying sound in the world?” before proceeding to make a high-pitched, alarm-like noise.
As annoying as that sound is, a number of football fans around these parts might gladly take that over a certain noise that comes out of Arrowhead Stadium every fall: “SHEEEE-RANDO!”
“I’ve had friends whose kids go to James Wood, Millbrook or Handley say to me, ‘That’s the most annoying thing I’ve ever heard,’” said Rick Ours, who has been Sherando High School’s football public address announcer since the school opened in 1993. “I tell them, ‘Good. I’m glad it’s working.’”
Ours initially added the drawn-out pronunciation of the school’s name after first downs, and later to touchdowns.
“It’s intended to not only generate excitement from the crowd, but also sort of intimidate the other team,” he said recently.
Ours’s announcing skills are just one of the many things that have made games at Sherando’s stadium truly unique events.
“I would definitely say the experience there is one of the best in the state,” said Reed Prosser, football coach at Heritage High School in Leesburg, who made the trip to Sherando while coaching Millbrook from 2006 to 2012.
There’s the drum beat that typically begins playing over the Sherando loudspeaker at 4 p.m.
There’s the man dressed in Native American garb as the “Sherando Warrior,” complete with headdress and face paint, who rides onto the playing field on a horse and throws down a spear as the theme from the movie “The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly” plays in the background.
There’s the school band, the cheerleaders and the student “Loud Crowd.”
At select games, there’s the fireworks that go off in the sky during the national anthem, and after Sherando touchdowns and wins.
And, of course, there are the loyal fans who consistently pack the stands and cheer on the team. Ours said he never gets tired of seeing the fans chop their arms forward when he makes his first down call.
“Sherando, in my opinion, has the best fans of any high school I’ve ever been at,” Ours said. “They’re just very loyal and supportive.
The product on the field is the main reason why the Warriors enjoy games at Arrowhead so much.
Under Sherando head coach Bill Hall, who has been in the post 13 years, the Warriors have never had a losing season and have won 109 games and made two state championship game appearances. Before Hall, Walter Barr also won three regional titles and advanced to two state finals in his four years coaching Sherando from 1994 to 1997.
But over the last 23 seasons, Ours has done everything he can to add to those successful moments with his announcing, and his musical selections.
Ours, 57, who is director of video productions at Shenandoah University, studied broadcast journalism at West Virginia University and had extensive experience in radio and television before moving to Frederick County in 1990. He hosted the Mountaineer Sports Network’s WVU football pre-game show for three years, and during his time in Morgantown, he also provided play-by-play for high school football games on the radio.
So when a neighbor mentioned in 1993 that the new high school in Stephens City was looking for a public address announcer, Ours was immediately intrigued. He has been an unpaid volunteer public address announcer ever since the Warriors’ first home game.
His unique first down call hasn’t been around since the first game, though. As is often the case with first-year schools, Sherando struggled in its debut season (it went 0-10), but Ours couldn’t help but take notice in the improvement the team made over the course of the year.
“Near the end of the season — it may have been the last game — [Sherando] played pretty well,” Ours said. “They got this big first down, and instead of [plainly] saying, ‘First down, Sherando’ I [exclaimed], ‘FIRST DOWN, SHEEEE-RANDO!’
“Everybody just sort of reacted to it. It just sort of caught on and became my moniker.”
Ours brought it back for the following season — Barr’s first — and took delight as the fans yelled Ours’s first down call as he was saying it, and chopping one arm forward while they yelled. Ours also added “SHEEEE-RANDO!” to his touchdown calls as well.
As the years have gone on, Ours has frequently spiced up games with his laptop and audio board with songs from people and groups like James Brown (“I Feel Good”), AC/DC (“Back in Black” for the black-clad Warriors), Queen (“We Will Rock You”) and the Baha Men (“Who Let the Dogs Out”).
“Rick gives the crowd a lot of energy,” Prosser said.
While the in-game music is entertaining, it’s Sherando’s pre-game music that sets the tone.
Four years before Jason Barbe was hired as Sherando’s coordinator of student activities, he was an assistant football coach who helped the Warriors to their first-ever playoff berth in 1995.
With future NFL wide receiver Kelley Washington manning the quarterback position, Sherando opened the playoffs with a home game against Courtland that year. To mark the occasion, Sherando elected to play a persistent drum beat (DUN-dun-dun-dun DUN-dun-dun-dun) over the public address system.
“We were standing outside the locker room before the game, and we heard some of [the Courtland] kids say, ‘I hate those drums,’” Barbe said. “We just said, ‘Well, that’s a keeper.’”
Since Barbe took over as coordinator of student activities in 1999, the drumbeat has never started later than 4 p.m., which means it’s ringing in the ears of opposing teams before they even enter the stadium.
“It’s sort of an intimidation thing,” Ours said. “People from opposing teams have told me, ‘Those drums just absolutely drive me crazy.’”
The drums are turned off at 6:35 p.m., then shortly before kickoff Sherando drives its home fans crazy in a good way with another unique noise.
Ours said Barbe’s predecessor, Les Cummings, had the idea of using the iconic theme from the 1966 movie “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly” to introduce the players.
It’s still used to introduce the players, but now the opening portion of the song is used for the “Sherando Warrior” and his horse, which has been a staple at Sherando graduations since 1996.
In 2005, Barbe said the school thought it would be a good idea to have the Sherando Warrior ride in before football games, too, and the reaction to his first appearance couldn’t have gone any better.
“The crowd went berserk,” Barbe said. “It was another situation where we said, ‘That’s a keeper.’”
When the Sherando Warrior leaves after throwing down his spear, Ours then says, “Let’s bring on the Sherando Warriors!” and the players run onto the field. Ours amps up the energy level with audio from noted ring announcer Michael Buffer — “Let’s get ready to rumble!” — before playing the familiar sports anthem song that features the line, “Y’all ready for this.”
Player introductions follow, with Sherando offensive or defensive starters running through two lines of their teammates when their name is called, and music plays during those introductions as well.
“The music before the game has become a real tradition at Sherando,” Ours said.
It’s just of the many things that makes games at Sherando an experience that can’t be beat.
“The experience we have at Sherando is unique to us,” Hall said. “We’ve traveled around the state, and we think this is one of the best experiences there is.
“Things like the horse on the field, the way our announcer makes first down calls, our student ‘Loud Crowd,’ and the support we get from our fans is a big part of who we are. The people of Stephens City and Middletown take pride in our school and give us tremendous support, and our players take pride in playing for their school and the community, and that relationship helps with our success. It’s a win-win for both sides.”
